3 a day & 5 on Sunday

Well, it was Sunday and time for 5 but it was so cold. I looked at the thermometer and it said 20 degrees so I went and put on 20 degrees of layers and headed out. Once again the wind proved to be the enemy of the long distance hunter. It was just like a knife. There was still patches of snow and it was so cold that my sinuses were running faster than I was.

The leg muscles are strong and I have no longer have a problem with a normal pace for 5 miles but the tendons around the ankles and the knees are still not up to snuff. Tendons grow strong very slowly. If I push really hard on uneven ground going uphill I can feel pain around the ends of the muscles down at the ankles and up at the knees.

This is why you have to be patient and start way in advance. At my age if you want to gain then you avoid pain. Pain is telling you that something is fixing to break.

By late March or early April I will be ready for running a 10K race (slowly).

Joint replacement is a worry always. The coating on the joints that allows them to move freely is very important and I worry about it. The good thing is for those of us who might be faced with the end of our hunting days, it can be a salvation that is welcomed.

I try to resurrect one or the other of my fitness posts about once a month to remind people that they need to get started or not slack off as the case may be.

I have been running more outside this winter. I teach in the city of Fairbanks, Alaska although I am a Bushbunny at heart. I have to stay here while my kid is going to high school. I normally run inside(stairs) but I felt guilty about my dogs and decided to run them 6 times per week.
I generally get about 3.2 miles on general days and 1-2 days I take a different route that climbs 1200ft up a powerline.
I had to take one week off when it got colder than -40F as the Pitbull would get very cold. The dogs, a pug and a pitbull, generally run pretty fast because I don't give them an opportunity to mess around until we get near home and if they slow down they kind of freeze a bit. Winter running burns fat better than summer running and feels good. I figure -15-(-25F) is about perfect.

I find that running in winter is better than in summer as snow provides greater cushioning for tendons.

I lift heavy five times per week in a modified double split squats, cleans and pullups as most important lifts with BFS and Tabata style sprints with medicine balls. Basically, medicine balls bounce these days and I race high school kids in shuttle races while bouncing the rubber medicine balls. This burns lungs like running up hills or packing heavy up hills.

It was at about that age that I quite smoking after 20 years and started trying to run. I could not even jog a 1/4 mile. After three years I ran my first marathon and then began my quest for Dreams of Glory that ended with a torn ligament behind my right knee. All that I can say is that I tried my best and the heart was willing but the ligaments were weak. No Olympic marathon trials for me. I was fast enough that I believed I would be on the podium for the Masters Mile in Alexandria, Va. But the road to the Olympics is strewn with the carcasses of the people like me who are not naturally gifted.

The joy of being so blazing fast is simply incredible. The pain of laying awake all night long with your legs hurting and already being full of painkillers is long forgotten but I know it well.